


Many Goodbyes

by Uozumi



Category: Doctor Who, The Thick of It (TV)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Chameleon Arch, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2014-11-10
Packaged: 2018-02-24 20:09:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2594888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uozumi/pseuds/Uozumi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor did not anticipate running into a former companion when using the chameleon arch to create Malcolm Tucker. Jamie MacDonald never anticipated the Doctor would return under a disguise. The reveal does not go well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Many Goodbyes

**Author's Note:**

> **Fandom** _Doctor Who_ / _The Thick of It_ (doctorthickofit)  
>  **Character(s)/Pairing(s)** Jamie MacDonald, Malcolm Tucker, Twelfth Doctor; Malcolm/Jamie  
>  **Genre** Crossover/Drama/Science Fiction/Slash  
>  **Rating** PG-13 (R for language)  
>  **Word Count** 2,507  
>  **Disclaimer** _The Thick of It_ c. BBC  
>  **Summary** The Doctor did not anticipate running into a former companion when using the chameleon arch to create Malcolm Tucker. Jamie MacDonald never anticipated the Doctor would return under a disguise. The reveal does not go well.   
> **Warning(s)** wobbly consent due to a chameleon arch, potential spoilers up through “Death in Heaven” for _Doctor Who_ ; spoilers for all series and specials of _The Thick of It_  
>  **Notes** Kind of a fusion of smaller ideas I’ve been poking at for months now. This fic should probably be multi-chaptered, cover from Jamie’s start in the TARDIS to the end of this fic and so forth, but I just don’t have the time for that length of fic right now. This was going to have a vastly different ending and then things kind of worked themselves into what the end result became.

**_Many Goodbyes_ **

The TARDIS settled down in Bearsden in 1985. It was spring and Easter was near. Jamie stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around. Everything looked as he left it. Jamie picked a discarded newspaper off the ground. It was dated his birthday. Jamie’s fingers tightened on the newspaper. He could feel the Doctor’s eyes on him.

“What is it?” the Doctor asked. He was tall and thin with wild grey hair. He was an alien with a time machine that could go anywhere into the past, future, or even to alien worlds. He picked Jamie up when Zygons tried to take over the secondary school Jamie attended four years ago in linear Earth chronology. 

“I turn twenty-one today,” Jamie said. He was certain it was today’s paper. It was not ratty enough to be much older.

“You turned twenty-one when I took you to Venus,” the Doctor said. “How many twenty-first birthdays do humans have?”

“One,” Jamie said. He folded the paper and then tapped the date with a finger, “And today is mine.” He paused. “I feel like I should be twenty-seven.”

“Then be twenty-seven,” the Doctor said. 

“You don’t fucking understand,” Jamie said. “I’m twenty-seven, but I have to pretend that the last eight years flying with you never happened. I don’t want to be a priest anymore.” He was uncertain if he ever wanted to be one or just tried to be one because he did not have a direction in his life when he applied to the seminary. Jamie took a deep breath. “I don’t even want to travel with you anymore,” the words left his mouth before he realized he would say them. They felt true. He looked at the Doctor.

The Doctor opened his mouth and closed it. His eyes searched Jamie’s face. “You’re serious.”

“Of course I’m serious,” Jamie said. “If this keeps up, I’ll end up the oldest of five instead of the youngest. I’m already three years older than my sister. She’s supposed to be three years older than I am.” He threw the paper in a nearby bin with frustration. “Time and space is amazing, but I can’t keep doing this.” 

The Doctor watched quietly. His eyes remained partially lowered, always watching Jamie. 

Jamie looked at the Doctor. “I’m just a cunt who was always going to leave, no matter what I used to think,” he said. “Who knows what they want when they’re nineteen? We’re all a bunch of bastards.” Jamie reached out a hand. The Doctor took it. Jamie gripped the Doctor’s hand tightly, but not too tightly. He knew touch could be painful for the Doctor. “You can always come to me. If you need help saving a monster in a loch from nutters, you know who to look up.” 

“Are you sure you don’t want one last adventure?” the Doctor asked. Jamie knew that it must feel like only seconds ago the Doctor said goodbye to his last companion and hello to Jamie given the Doctor’s incredible lifespan. 

“I do want one last adventure,” Jamie said and added with emphasis, “my life.” He let go of the Doctor’s hand. Jamie did not say goodbye, but he did wave before turning away and walking down the street. When he heard the TARDIS take off, he looked over his shoulder and watched it disappear. 

Twelve years later, Jamie was a single father to two girls. He had not seen the Doctor since his birthday all those years ago. He was part of the London political scene and everyone was preparing for the general election. Jaime’s party leader brought on a new strategist to help with elections named Malcolm Tucker, who was tall and thin with wild greying hair. 

“Stop staring,” Malcolm said to Jamie. “You look like I’m going to severe Glenn’s head off and use it in a satanic ritual to bring the party leader to power.” 

Glenn Cullen looked alarmed at the notion. He was one of the advisors helping with the campaign. 

Jamie eyed Malcolm. Malcolm reminded Jamie of the Doctor, but Malcolm’s voice was sharper and his hair shorter. “Aren’t you?” Jamie asked. “We’ll need special candles for it.”

Malcolm held Jamie’s gaze and smirked ever so slightly. Jamie smirked back. It was an alliance that held firm throughout the decades as Jamie’s daughters grew into adults and Jamie and Malcolm advanced in their careers. Jamie and Malcolm made an infamous team. That ended when the prime minister resigned. Jamie was out of the political arena. He moved on to a communications job at a company in London. He kept in touch with Malcolm. Even though their time together was rare, their friendship strengthened. It was late at Malcolm’s home and the wine bottle was empty. 

“Do you ever think there’s more out there?” Malcolm asked after a long bout of companionable silence. “If you ran away, you could go from planet to planet and never come back?” His words were not slurred, but he did sound exhausted. Jamie could see how deep Malcolm’s wrinkles were in the dim light. 

“I think Amelia once told me it would take less than a year to get to Mars,” Jamie said. Amelia was his youngest daughter. He picked her name from one of the people the Doctor told him about. It was a good name and the woman the Doctor spoke of sounded strong and creative. Jamie’s wife named their oldest daughter. The marriage broke apart when the girls were very young due to pressure on his ex from her parents to be a “proper mother.” The things his in-laws thought of as motherly were things that came easy to Jamie and things that his in-laws thought of as fatherly came easily to his ex. Too much stress and strain led to a divorce in which Jamie and his ex shared custody of their daughters, though the girls lived during the week with Jamie. Now that the girls were adults, they were out of the house and were forging amicable relationships with their parents. 

“All of time and space,” Malcolm murmured, “next stop…everywhere.” He paused and rubbed his face. “Where did that load of shit come from?” He leaned forward and ran his hands through his hair. 

Jamie thought it sounded like something River Song might say, but he kept the thought to himself. “Too much wine. You’re going to die a giant grape like that bastard in the Chocolate Factory.” He got up from the sofa to take the empty wine bottle to the counter. He paused at the doorway of the kitchen and watched Malcolm stretch out on the sofa. Malcolm’s eyes were distant, elusive. It reminded Jamie of the Doctor, but he dismissed it as the wine in his system thinking strange things since Malcolm and the Doctor looked so similar. 

Over the next few years, Jamie and Malcolm talked about moving in together, but never made any definite decisions. Malcolm was part of Jamie’s family in his own way, and Jamie’s grandson sometimes gave Malcolm artworks that Malcolm put in his office. Malcolm’s workload increased as the party moved into opposition. Then came the inquiry, and suddenly there was no more time to consider moving in together or what their future might be. It was time for Malcolm to turn himself in. Jamie and Malcolm stood in the upstairs hallway of Malcolm’s house. Jamie’s daughters and grandson were downstairs. 

“You didn’t do it,” Jamie hissed. 

“The person who did was too important,” Malcolm said. 

“I know,” Jamie said. He moved back and forth, wanting to say all the things he said throughout the inquiry, wanting to vent everything he vented last night. 

“If we’re going to say nonsense, I should go,” Malcolm said. He placed his hands on Jamie’s chest and Jamie stopped moving. 

The kiss was mutual, intense. Malcolm’s fingers tugged on Jamie’s hair and Jamie grabbed Malcolm’s ass. Their bodies pressed up against one another and one kiss became three before they slowly pulled away from one another. Jamie held Malcolm’s gaze until Malcolm looked away and led them downstairs. Malcolm said goodbye to Jamie’s daughters and Jamie’s grandson before leaving. Jamie’s grandson peeked out the window until his mother pulled him away. 

Years passed. Jamie did not visit Malcolm since Malcolm ask that he not. Jamie’s oldest daughter still lived in Malcolm’s house, which he gave to her before going to prison. Jamie had grey spreading through his hair when a TARDIS blue envelope appeared on his doorstep one morning. Inside was a key, a fob watch, and the words “One last adventure,” scribbled across a card. Jamie ran his fingers over the key. It had been decades since he touched one of the TARDIS’ keys. He put the coordinates into his mobile. It was not far. 

When Jamie arrived at the TARDIS, it was in a park hidden out of the way. Jamie set about clearing the vines and other overgrowth away from her. “How long have you been here?” he asked. He knew the TARDIS could hear him. 

“What are you doing?”

Jamie paused and then tossed the last of the plant material onto the ground. He turned around looked at Malcolm. “What does it look like I’m doing?” 

“If you are going to kill me, a last meal instead of a murder box would have been nice,” Malcolm said. He kept his distance but he did not leave. He was thinner and his hair was longer and almost completely white. 

Jamie felt the weight of the key and the watch in his pocket. “How long have you been out?” Jamie asked. 

“An hour,” Malcolm said. He reached into his pocket and showed Jamie a TARDIS blue envelope. “I got your note with my things. Didn’t imagine you to be the type to play cunt and seek.” 

“I’m not,” Jamie said. He showed Malcolm his envelope. “I’ve got something of yours too.” His tongue stuck to the roof his mouth. The more he watched Malcolm, the more he suspected what would happen next. He could easily imagine Malcolm in a longer, more dramatic jacket. He could imagine Malcolm in a jumper covered with holes. Jamie moved forward and took the fob watch from his pocket. 

Malcolm’s jaw set. He took the fob watch from Jamie. “I don’t remember this.” He ran his fingers along the front and back of the fob watch, but there were no exterior inscriptions. 

“Open it,” Jamie said. He watched Malcolm’s face. He had a feeling what might happen. Jamie needed to see the moment. He felt the same way with needles at a doctor’s office. He had to see the moment it went through the skin no matter how much it hurt. 

Malcolm opened the watch. He breathed in deeply and the essence of everything he used to be flooded his body and senses. He closed his eyes. His shoulders, mouth, and posture relaxed. He shut the watch once the essence ceased and when his eyes opened, he was the Doctor. Malcolm no longer existed. 

It hurt more than Jamie anticipated. Malcolm was dead, but his body remained because his body had always been the Doctor in some human form. Jamie did not know how this happened or why. The more he remembered everything he went through with Malcolm, the more his jaw tightened. “You should have fucking told me,” he said. “You could have come to my house. We could have gotten whatever rubbish bin cunt you were after.” Jamie’s eyes moved from the ground to the Doctor. His fists were so tight that he could feel his fingernails pressing into the flesh of his palms. 

The Doctor continued to observe Jamie. “Were you always this…grey?” He gestured to Jamie’s hair. Before Jamie could respond, the Doctor said, “No, don’t answer.” He held up the fob watch. “Malcolm was human. He’s a part of me, but also not me. I created a chameleon arch, and put all of my knowledge of time and space into this.” The Doctor pocketed the fob watch. “I needed to infiltrate humanity. I needed to hide.”

“From what?” Jamie asked. 

“It doesn’t matter now,” the Doctor said. 

Jamie frowned deeper. He looked at the Doctor and tried to see something of Malcolm beyond the face and the body. There was nothing. “You let me fuck you,” Jamie said. He paused. “If you wanted to fuck me you could have said so.” 

“I made myself fully human,” the Doctor said. “That’s a different biology set. Your bodies do strange things upon waking, think strange things after sleeping.” 

“‘Strange things?’” Jamie took a few steps towards the Doctor and then stopped. He saw armies defeated by this alien. He saw Daleks come apart. He knew how much power the Doctor carried, how much he could wield. The Doctor had never used this power on Jamie, but Jamie had never attacked either. Jamie hit a nearby tree instead. 

“What I want and what Malcolm wanted were separate things,” the Doctor said. “Malcolm was completely human.” He did not look away from Jamie. “I can see now that you should have known. I didn’t anticipate you being part of the government.”

Jamie eyed the Doctor. He knew that there were things he offered Malcolm he never offered the Doctor. He had never thought of the Doctor in the way he thought of Malcolm. “I should skin whatever alien cock or cunt lurks under your trousers and staple it to your face.” Jamie panted with frustration and anger. He thought about everything he went through with Malcolm. He thought about his daughters and his grandson. Jamie thought about dangling upside down over a vat of lava. He thought about the time he contracted the Vulcan version of small pox and almost died. Jamie remembered all the times they ran for their lives and all the times it seemed like the Doctor might leave him for dead only to appear just in time. Jamie tried to imagine his daughters or grandson in these situations. He straightened. “You need to fuck off. Fuck off and never bother my family or me again.”

Jamie began to shred his envelope and card into the tiniest piece he could manage. It was the only thing he could unleash his anger on. The TARDIS key fell out of the paper and onto the ground. Jamie looked down at it. He picked the key up and walked past the Doctor to the TARDIS. He placed the key on top of the TARDIS. He threw the shredded paper still in his hands at the Doctor. 

Before Jamie got too far, the Doctor asked, “Where’s Sam?” 

Jamie considered not answering. He stopped walking and looked back at the Doctor. “She disappeared,” he said. “Ask that brigadier where she is.” 

The Doctor’s eyes darkened. His lips became a thin line. 

Jamie sighed. He turned away and did not look back. He could hear the TARDIS leaving just before he was too far away to hear the noise.

**The End**


End file.
